I thought the STRM was much better than some of the Kaplan Materials I used the first time I took it. The first time, I was overwhelmed by how little time I had to look up things. I passed the second time by spending more time studying and working problem after problem. I had the 6 min. solutions book and ncees and the STRM. I went through all three books WORKING the problems several times (and carefully watching the time). If nothing else, it gave me the confidence to tackle the test one more time. Incidently, I had plenty of time the second time around because I had become accustomed to having to find things quickly.
The STRM is not a large book, but it covers a lot of material. I thought it was well written compared to some other materials I had tried. I will say that the Civil CRM was much, much bigger and had a lot of basic structural information in it as well.